mlsanityData to 14 Oct 2026

A Survey of Personalization: From RAG to Agent

arXiv 2504.10147 ↗First posted 14 Apr 2025cs.IRcited by 27

On the map: Retrieval-augmented generation → Agentic RAG, agents and memory

also in 1 more
Abstract (arXiv)

Personalization has become an essential capability in modern AI systems, enabling customized interactions that align with individual user preferences, contexts, and goals. Recent research has increasingly concentrated on Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) frameworks and their evolution into more advanced agent-based architectures within personalized settings to enhance user satisfaction. Building on this foundation, this survey systematically examines personalization across the three core stages of RAG: pre-retrieval, retrieval, and generation. Beyond RAG, we further extend its capabilities into the realm of Personalized LLM-based Agents, which enhance traditional RAG systems with agentic functionalities, including user understanding, personalized planning and execution, and dynamic generation. For both personalization in RAG and agent-based personalization, we provide formal definitions, conduct a comprehensive review of recent literature, and summarize key datasets and evaluation metrics. Additionally, we discuss fundamental challenges, limitations, and promising research directions in this evolving field. Relevant papers and resources are continuously updated at https://github.com/Applied-Machine-Learning-Lab/Awesome-Personalized-RAG-Agent.

Key facts. Cited by 27 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026). Placed in Agentic RAG, agents and memory, one of 15 directions in Retrieval-augmented generation. Builds on 136 of its 232 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 14 Apr 2025.

Builds on

136 of 232 references.

Closest ancestors · 3

Same direction, newest first

  1. 2025Agentic Retrieval-Augmented Generation: A Survey on Agentic RAG15 Jan
  2. 2024Learning to Rank for Multiple Retrieval-Augmented Models through Iterative Utility Maximization13 Oct
  3. 2024Crafting Personalized Agents through Retrieval-Augmented Generation on Editable Memory Graphs28 Sep

Other references · 133

  1. 2021LoRA: Low-Rank Adaptation of Large Language Modelscited by 14,380
  2. 2019Sentence-BERT: Sentence Embeddings using Siamese BERT-Networkscited by 9,170
  3. 2023Generative Agents: Interactive Simulacra of Human Behaviorcited by 3,568
  4. 2023Lost in the Middle: How Language Models Use Long Contextscited by 3,455
  5. 2023A Survey on Large Language Model based Autonomous Agentscited by 2,242
  6. 2023Retrieval-Augmented Generation for Large Language Models: A Surveycited by 2,212
  7. 2023MetaGPT: Meta Programming for A Multi-Agent Collaborative Frameworkcited by 1,808
  8. 2023The Rise and Potential of Large Language Model Based Agents: A Surveycited by 1,439
  9. 2025A-MEM: Agentic Memory for LLM Agentscited by 1,063
  10. 2022Language Models as Zero-Shot Planners: Extracting Actionable Knowledge for Embodied Agentscited by 1,035
  11. 2024Evaluating Very Long-Term Conversational Memory of LLM Agentscited by 830
  12. 2023Whose Opinions Do Language Models Reflect?cited by 773
38 more
  1. 2023Towards General Text Embeddings with Multi-stage Contrastive Learningcited by 723
  2. 2023Bias and Fairness in Large Language Models: A Surveycited by 639
  3. 2024A Survey on the Memory Mechanism of Large Language Model based Agentscited by 634
  4. 2023C-Pack: Packed Resources For General Chinese Embeddingscited by 578
  5. 2024A Survey on RAG Meeting LLMs: Towards Retrieval-Augmented Large Language Modelscited by 452
  6. 2023LaMP: When Large Language Models Meet Personalizationcited by 437
  7. 2024Understanding the planning of LLM agents: A surveycited by 421
  8. 2023AppAgent: Multimodal Agents as Smartphone Userscited by 415
  9. 2024TravelPlanner: A Benchmark for Real-World Planning with Language Agentscited by 392
  10. 2023Adapting Language Models to Compress Contextscited by 356
  11. 2023Character-LLM: A Trainable Agent for Role-Playingcited by 339
  12. 2019Deep Learning Recommendation Model for Personalization and Recommendation Systemscited by 327
  13. 2023Personalized Soups: Personalized Large Language Model Alignment via Post-hoc Parameter Mergingcited by 280
  14. 2024Personal LLM Agents: Insights and Survey about the Capability, Efficiency and Securitycited by 260
  15. 2025EmbodiedBench: Comprehensive Benchmarking Multi-modal Large Language Models for Vision-Driven Embodied Agentscited by 221
  16. 2024From Persona to Personalization: A Survey on Role-Playing Language Agentscited by 212
  17. 2023Is ChatGPT a Good Recommender? A Preliminary Studycited by 193
  18. 2023InCharacter: Evaluating Personality Fidelity in Role-Playing Agents through Psychological Interviewscited by 179
  19. 2024CharacterEval: A Chinese Benchmark for Role-Playing Conversational Agent Evaluationcited by 143
  20. 2023User Behavior Simulation with Large Language Model based Agentscited by 140
  21. 2024Personalized Language Modeling from Personalized Human Feedbackcited by 132
  22. 2022Improving the Domain Adaptation of Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) Models for Open Domain Question Answeringcited by 127
  23. 2022Evaluating and Inducing Personality in Pre-trained Language Modelscited by 123
  24. 2023Do LLMs Understand User Preferences? Evaluating LLMs On User Rating Predictioncited by 116
  25. 2021BERT: A Review of Applications in Natural Language Processing and Understandingcited by 109
  26. 2022Long Time No See! Open-Domain Conversation with Long-Term Persona Memorycited by 108
  27. 2018Deep Reinforcement Learning for Page-wise Recommendationscited by 100
  28. 2024Can LLM be a Personalized Judge?cited by 100
  29. 2024Optimization Methods for Personalizing Large Language Models through Retrieval Augmentationcited by 99
  30. 2024LongLaMP: A Benchmark for Personalized Long-form Text Generationcited by 97
  31. 2024MEMORYLLM: Towards Self-Updatable Large Language Modelscited by 93
  32. 2023Conversational Health Agents: A Personalized LLM-Powered Agent Frameworkcited by 92
  33. 2023Pearl: Personalizing Large Language Model Writing Assistants with Generation-Calibrated Retrieverscited by 92
  34. 2024Human Alignment of Large Language Models through Online Preference Optimisationcited by 91
  35. 2024Democratizing Large Language Models via Personalized Parameter-Efficient Fine-tuningcited by 90
  36. 2023Bootstrap Your Own Skills: Learning to Solve New Tasks with Large Language Model Guidancecited by 86
  37. 2022Personalized Prompt Learning for Explainable Recommendationcited by 79
  38. 2024User-LLM: Efficient LLM Contextualization with User Embeddingscited by 76

50 most cited of 133 All 133 (JSON)

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Cited by year (2026 to 14 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2025: 13; 2026: 14.

27 papers.

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  1. 2025A Survey of Self-Evolving Agents: What, When, How, and Where to Evolve on the Path to Artificial Super Intelligencecited by 170
  2. 2025A Survey of Context Engineering for Large Language Modelscited by 126
  3. 2025Process vs. Outcome Reward: Which is Better for Agentic RAG Reinforcement Learningcited by 70
  4. 2025LiCoMemory: Lightweight and Cognitive Agentic Memory for Efficient Long-Term Reasoningcited by 38
  5. 2025From Single to Multi-Granularity: Toward Long-Term Memory Association and Selection of Conversational Agentscited by 29
  6. 2025Enabling Personalized Long-term Interactions in LLM-based Agents through Persistent Memory and User Profilescited by 17
  7. 2026Toward Personalized LLM-Powered Agents: Foundations, Evaluation, and Future Directionscited by 14
  8. 2026PERMA: Benchmarking Personalized Memory Agents via Event-Driven Preference and Realistic Task Environmentscited by 14
  9. 2025Personalize Before Retrieve: LLM-based Personalized Query Expansion for User-Centric Retrievalcited by 11
  10. 2026DeepResearch-9K: A Challenging Benchmark Dataset of Deep-Research Agentcited by 10
  11. 2025Toward Safe and Human-Aligned Game Conversational Recommendation via Multi-Agent Decompositioncited by 9
  12. 2025Scaling Beyond Context: A Survey of Multimodal Retrieval-Augmented Generation for Document Understandingcited by 9
15 more
  1. 2025CAIM: Development and Evaluation of a Cognitive AI Memory Framework for Long-Term Interaction with Intelligent Agentscited by 7
  2. 2025ID-RAG: Identity Retrieval-Augmented Generation for Long-Horizon Persona Coherence in Generative Agentscited by 7
  3. 2025SteerX: Disentangled Steering for LLM Personalizationcited by 7
  4. 2026PrefIx: Understand and Adapt to User Preference in Human-Agent Interactioncited by 7
  5. 2026Long Context, Less Focus: A Scaling Gap in LLMs Revealed through Privacy and Personalizationcited by 5
  6. 2026ComBodied Agents: a New Paradigm of Human-Centric Agentic AIcited by 5
  7. 2026DeepTutor: Towards Agentic Personalized Tutoringcited by 2
  8. 2026Improving User Privacy in Personalized Generation: Client-Side Retrieval-Augmented Modification of Server-Side Generated Speculationscited by 1
  9. 2026StratMem-Bench: Evaluating Strategic Memory Use in Virtual Character Conversation Beyond Factual Recallcited by 1
  10. 2026From Volume to Value: Preference-Aligned Memory Construction for On-Device RAGcited by 1
  11. 2026MemSlides: A Hierarchical Memory Driven Agent Framework for Personalized Slide Generation with Multi-turn Local Revisioncited by 1
  12. 2025UrbanMind: Towards Urban General Intelligence via Tool-Enhanced Retrieval-Augmented Generation and Multilevel Optimizationcited by 0
  13. 2026Many Preferences, Few Policies: Towards Scalable Language Model Personalizationcited by 0
  14. 2026Psi-Bench: Evaluating Persona-Sensitive Influencing in Persuasive Dialoguescited by 0
  15. 2026AtomRec: Evolving Atomic Memory for Agentic Recommendationcited by 0

Similar, not cited

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  1. 2026APeB: Benchmarking Personalization Ability of Large Language Model Agents
  2. 2025ARAG: Agentic Retrieval Augmented Generation for Personalized Recommendation
  3. 2025Beyond Static Evaluation: Rethinking the Assessment of Personalized Agent Adaptability in Information Retrieval
  4. 2025Interact-RAG: Reason and Interact with the Corpus, Beyond Black-Box Retrieval
  5. 2025SPARK: Search Personalization via Agent-Driven Retrieval and Knowledge-sharing
  6. 2025Dynamic Evaluation Framework for Personalized and Trustworthy Agents: A Multi-Session Approach to Preference Adaptability
  7. 2024A Collaborative Multi-Agent Approach to Retrieval-Augmented Generation Across Diverse Data
  8. 2026Is Agentic RAG worth it? An experimental comparison of RAG approaches